asylum-seekers

Asylum seekers in Australia’s controversial offshore detention center on Manus Island are panicking after an announcement today by officials: Portions of the compound will begin closing on May 28. By Oct. 31, the camp will shut down in its entirety, leaving asylum seekers few options if Australia refuses to accept them.

Dozens of detained asylum seekers and migrant workers at a Japanese immigration center are on a hunger strike to protest repeated and prolonged detentions. The rare protest action has called attention once again to Japan’s unusually strict immigration policies, despite being one of the world’s most generous aid donors.

Human Rights Watch officials say there is an unprecedented number of sick and hungry Venezuelans immigrating to a northern state of Brazil, where authorities say the health-care system is ill-equipped to help them.

The Mexican government has decided to grant residency permits to nearly 600 migrants from Cuba, where dismal economic prospects have forced thousands to seek new lives in countries without the means or will to take them.

The fate of asylum seekers detained by Australia on Nauru and Manus Island remains in limbo, after Donald Trump backpedaled on an agreement to resettle 1,250 of them in a tweet late last night, not even two hours after the U.S. embassy in Canberra confirmed he would honor it.

A “substantial” number of asylum-seekers from Australia’s offshore detention camps will be resettled in the U.S. following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said this week regarding a recent deal struck between the two countries. Now, it’s up to Trump to decide if it’s a good deal.

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